Crash Couch
by 10th Muse
Summary: One Shot - Takes place after The Performer (Season 5, Ep 7) - Just a light interaction between Hotch and Emily when they came back from LA.


**Criminal Minds**

 **One Shot Story – Crash Couch**

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-Takes place after The Performer (Season5, Ep7)

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She watched him leave the interview room; a disappointed man. At least he offered to help Gina and his manager. His heart was in the right place. Emily couldn't help but admired that.

But before she left as well, Emily noticed he had left the CD on the table. She reached over and picked it up and flipped the back of it and smiled. "You flirting vampire..." and left the interview room.

…...

"...maybe we'll have a movie night...Clockwork Orange, for our genius boy's benefit and education." Morgan suggested as he grinned.

"I happen to be well educated, thank you very much." Reid piped up. "Although, now that you mention it, I am rather curious about this movie and the plot." He reach for his tablet and was soon immersed in it.

An occasional eyebrow raise was seen in his direction.

"Look what you'd done to him," Hotch jerked his chin towards Reid as he looked at Emily. "I think you might have traumatized his love of classical music."

She waved her hand, "Oh...I don't think so, I'm sure he'd veer off to Vivaldi or Tchaikovsky...maybe something extremely outrageous like the Cure or Adele." She removed the CD from her briefcase and opened it.

"Don't tell me you're gonna listen to this Dante, Prentiss?" Morgan teased her.

Emily gave him a dark look, "Actually I am. I happen to like all kinds of music, including his." She opened the CD case and a piece of paper came out and she opened it and began reading it.

"What?" Hotch noticed her reaction. "What's going on?"He leaned forward.

She shook her head as she returned the paper back to the disc.

Hotch kept his eyes on her.

She felt them and looked up, "Huh?"

"What's up?"

She shook her head again. "Nothing." She stood up and left them and sat behind, alone.

He kept his own counsel and opened a case file and soon was immerse in it.

…...

Two days later, Friday evening, Hotch was driving near Emily's apartment building when he spotted her walking with a man.

He frowned, the man seemed familiar.

Hotch parked his SUV on a curb nearby but not too near, and kept his gaze on them.

Emily and the man were deep in conversation; they were not intimate, rather animated, a little laughter mixed in it.

He then noticed she had nodded to him and they moved on into her apartment building, his hand guiding the small of her back before they disappeared into door.

Hotch gripped the steering wheel tightly; it shouldn't bother him. She was after all his subordinate, they had never established any relationship outside of work other than a friendly friendship.

Taking a deep breath, he drove off and returned home.

It when he was looking through his row of CDs that it dawned on him who that mysterious man was; Paul Davies, or Dante.

So, he'd made it here and contacted Emily.

It shouldn't bother him, yet it did; the team knew they should not made any close contact with the...vic...wait, Paul Davies was not a vic. He was originally a suspect.

Hotch shook his head; it didn't matter. Emily knew...should know better. She knew how to conduct herself.

She knew not to let herself get close to him...too close.

He poured a glass of Scotch and took a drink, it burned his inside; good.

His cell phone rang; it was Emily.

He contemplated on ignoring it.

In the end, he answered.

"Hotchner." Some things are hard to break.

"I'm downstairs." She chuckled. "Can I come up?"

He frowned. "Sure." He walked to his door.

A couple of minutes later, she was in his apartment.

"Hey!" She greeted him brightly.

He noticed she had her go-bag, his dark brows raised. "Going somewhere?"

She pointed at it, "I guess you need an explanation."

He shrugged as he took another drink.

She sighed as she placed the bag down and snatched the drink from him and downed it, pouring more from the bottle.

"Help yourself." He indicated dryly.

She nodded, "Thanks, I will." She drank again before slamming the tumbler on the counter, sighed, and belched. "Excuse me."

He shook his head, "It's okay, Jack does it all the time."

She grinned, "You let him have Scotch?"

"There are times..." He saw her reaction and shook his head. "No, just milk."

She nodded. "That's a relieve."

"Believe me, there are times when he has his moments...I'm tempted to let him have a drink just to..." He chuckled.

She watched him. "That bad?"

He shrugged, "He's over that." He indicated her go-bag. "About this, going somewhere?"

"Yeah...here."

"Huh?"

"Can I crash here for the weekend?"

"Sure, you know you can stay here anytime, what happen to your place?"

"Paul...Davies, Dante, he's here." She removed her boots and plodded towards the couch and sprawled across and sighed. "He and his two sisters needed some space to talk…."

"Sisters?"

She turned to face Hotch who had sat down on the Lazy-boy chair adjacent to the couch. "Yeah, they arrived not long when he told them about the whole thing in LA and at first they wanted to fly to CA but he wanted to get away from it all."

He nodded as he tried to follow her explanation.

"His sisters were all in a titzy about the whole affair, and the how the way LAPD had treated him, paraded him in front of the media. Paul explained to them it was not their fault and all, blah, blah, blah." She waved her hands above her head sleepily. "Before I knew it, he asked me, I told him, yeah, he can use my place to crash...and avoid the adoring fans and all..."

It had become quiet soon.

Hotch looked over to her and found Emily was fast asleep. "Emily...Hey..." He poked her arm gently.

No answer, no reaction.

Soon, a soft snore could be heard from her and Hotch grinned.

He got up from his chair and picked her up, carrying her and placed her into the room where Jack usually sleep when he spent his weekends over here.

Tucking her in snugly, Hotch turned off the light and moved into his room and sighed somewhat contently.

As he hopped into his bed a few minutes' later, he felt comforted knowing Emily was safe in the other room.

He could see from his room; he had not close his door or the door to the other room.

Safe and sound.

He reached up and pressed the lamp switch and the room was plunged into darkness.

"Goodnight, Emily." He yawned as he closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep.

…...

The End

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Author's Note...Yeah, I know...it's been a while since I last wrote anything. Just having some block out issues.

And no, I've not watched the new season. No Emily Prentiss yet, so, I'm still boycotting.

I want her back! Gr That's all I'm saying.

10th Muse


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